Our new Indie Games subforum is now open for business in G&T. Go and check it out, you might land a code for a free game. If you're developing an indie game and want to post about it, follow these directions. If you don't, he'll break your legs! Hahaha! Seriously though.

Our rules have been updated and given their own forum. Go and look at them! They are nice, and there may be new ones that you didn't know about! Hooray for rules! Hooray for The System! Hooray for Conforming!

Zimmydoom, Zimmydoom
Flew away in a balloon
Had sex with polar bears
While sitting in a reclining chair
Now there are Zim-Bear hybrids
Running around and clawing eyelids
Watch out, a Zim-Bear is about to have sex with yooooooou!

when you said that fiction was more efficient than non fiction, implying that a fiction author was more disconnected from a truth than a non fiction one.

Disconnected? No. Simply that a fiction author needs to spend space establishing character and describing scenes and communicating elements of plot and action; consequently some of that space is not used to flesh out the ideas being discussed.

Zimmydoom, Zimmydoom
Flew away in a balloon
Had sex with polar bears
While sitting in a reclining chair
Now there are Zim-Bear hybrids
Running around and clawing eyelids
Watch out, a Zim-Bear is about to have sex with yooooooou!

when you said that fiction was more efficient than non fiction, implying that a fiction author was more disconnected from a truth than a non fiction one.

Disconnected? No. Simply that a fiction author needs to spend space establishing character and describing scenes and communicating elements of plot and action; consequently some of that space is not used to flesh out the ideas being discussed.

They do? I don't think that's true at all. A non fiction writer that focuses on that stuff less will produce inferior work.

Disconnected? No. Simply that a fiction author needs to spend space establishing character and describing scenes and communicating elements of plot and action; consequently some of that space is not used to flesh out the ideas being discussed.

But couldn't these characters and scenes and plot and action all flesh out the ideas being discussed in their own unique way?

Don't try to teach people that faith is bunk. That way lies only more pain, anger, and resentment. Teach them that faith can mean something different, something freeing and inclusive and malleable.

That is how you win hearts and minds.

Sorry for being late on the response to this (I was frantically trying to get a report out).

Just what can faith mean, Zimmy? I'm honestly curious. Faith to me is an empty concept. It is devoid of worth to society.

From my perspective, you're advocating that I lie to people's faces about faith in order that they don't outright reject my viewpoint. Is that what you're saying?

Faith doesn't have to refer to religious belief, you can have "faith" in a person or group of people to do the right thing, or in an optimistic belief to be proven right in the end. This particular definition may be closer to "trust," but I tend to think of trust as being earned whereas faith is offered. It's you taking the first step, placing responsibility in the hands of the other person to validate your belief that, when push comes to shove, they'll do the right thing.

That's the kind of faith you need to have: that when the chips are down, even if you disagree with someone you're still willing to believe that they're capable of putting their biases aside to serve a higher purpose. Sure, sometimes that faith won't be justified, and your hand of friendship will be slapped away. But that doesn't mean you stop, doesn't mean you become cynical and certainly doesn't mean you were wrong to make the first offer.

It's not easy, and it can be frustrating when people don't live up to your expectations, but naked cynicism never amounts to much of anything.

Ah. But see, that's equivocating.

If I'm talking to a religious person and I say "Faith is important to me, too" and I start talking about putting biases aside and believing in the goodness of people, I've just ceased talking about the very thing under discussion.

I am now not talking about their "Faith" in God. I'm talking about a looser, broader faith that is not "Belief in spite of logic or evidence."

Zimmydoom, Zimmydoom
Flew away in a balloon
Had sex with polar bears
While sitting in a reclining chair
Now there are Zim-Bear hybrids
Running around and clawing eyelids
Watch out, a Zim-Bear is about to have sex with yooooooou!

Passerbye, the idea is, even if someone is making it personal, don't take anything personal. D&D regulars are a pretty abrasive bunch so mocking people is pretty much our way of bonding.

In other news, why is today so goddamn long?

If you say so. Maybe I should have Dyrwen explain my sense of humor to you guys so you can understand that my primary concern is making people uncomfortable and using sarcastic not-quite-non-sequitors.

Disconnected? No. Simply that a fiction author needs to spend space establishing character and describing scenes and communicating elements of plot and action; consequently some of that space is not used to flesh out the ideas being discussed.

But couldn't these characters and scenes and plot and action all flesh out the ideas being discussed in their own unique way?

Yes, but not every single sentence in a work of fiction is going to flesh out the ideas - no matter how dense, how well-developed a work of fiction, there is still going to be some text that gets you merely from plot point A to plot point B.